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Some Uber Employees Balk at Travis Kalanick’s Exit

50 points by tiger3 9y ago

bfrog 9y ago
I see a large layoff coming soon
dpflan 9y ago
"Some" == "The 1,000 clicks the petition received represent a small fraction of Uber’s more than 15,000 employees."
sidlls 9y ago
Mr. York should be the next to go. Who has someone with so little experience at anything, including life, influence, let alone have serious input, in a company's values? No wonder there was a culture of apparently unrestrained adolescent male aggression. An adolescent male helped shape the guidelines.
drenvuk 9y ago
I wonder if this is loyalty or fear of stock devaluation. I hope it's the former, that kind of thing is beautiful to see in employees.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- SwellJoe 9y ago
  I dunno. I've seen an awful lot of loyalty to ideas that don't deserve loyalty over the past several years, and it seems to keep ruining good things. A toxic culture really isn't one that deserves loyalty, and Kalanick inarguably built a toxic culture into the fabric of Uber. He's not the only one, but he's ultimately the responsible party. If you want to kill a toxic culture that starts at the top, you simply can't leave him in charge. It isn't surprising to me that ~1000 people in an organization would want the toxic culture to continue. There's a small subset of people who thrive in a toxic culture, and they, obviously, don't want it to go away. I'm sure some of these folks just like the guy and never had any problems with him, personally, perhaps because they're a young white male. Those folks probably aren't actively defending the toxic culture of Uber; they're just naively assuming that because they didn't experience it, it doesn't exist and that Kalanick is the victim of a smear campaign.
  - Steko 9y ago
    I doubt you can pigeonhole everyone who supports travis into a single category. Some might not want any change at uber but I think more of them just like Travis and see the many positive things he's done for them, some think changes can be made with him still on top, some are just virtue signalling to the remaining management who are still Travis's people or for Travis himself if/when he returns.
  - marcell 9y ago
    > There's a small subset of people who thrive in a toxic culture > perhaps because they're a young white male Really? This is such a mean generalization of 1000 people who you have never even met...
    - SwellJoe 9y ago
      Yeah, I'm just awful. Have you been following the Uber story, at all, over the past several years?
- gkoberger 9y ago
  My personal thoughts about Travis aside, it seems to be loyalty. I've seen a lot of support of Travis (as a leader/person) from Uber employees on Facebook the past few days. It's anecdotal, but there seems to be a number of people who are deeply loyal.
- callmevx 9y ago
  about those fears... http://fortune.com/2017/06/23/uber-stock-ceo-travis-kalanick-t-rowe-price/ http://fortune.com/2017/06/23/uber-stock-ceo-travis-kalanick...
jph 9y ago
Uber is in a difficult position. On the one hand, Kalanick has built a massive company. On the other hand, Holder's investigation turned up serious problems with the work culture. And employees, drivers, and investors are caught between these. To understand it from the inside, the best source I've seen is Susan Fowler's post "Reflecting on one very strange year at Uber". https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-on...
- CalChris 9y ago
  A massive unprofitable company. Anyone can do that. Anyone.
  - Axsuul 9y ago
    All you're doing is looking at the numbers
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    Tbh I couldn't. For one I wouldn't be comfortable doing it and for another it takes great courage to take on a project this size. So I couldn't do it for these two reasons alone and probably many others (skills) besides.
  - cakedoggie 9y ago
    Go one then.
ensiferum 9y ago
15k employees and this number obv doesn't include the drivers. Seriously?! What do they all do?
- askafriend 9y ago
  People says this for literally every company and it's getting fairly annoying that so many people can't see how a global operations-heavy company that does business in 200+ countries and develops an incredibly complex product can require a lot of resources....it's almost like people who ask this question have never worked on scaling a real business before. I mean theres everything from marketing, to customer support, to ground operations, to engineering, to site reliability, to infrastructure, to product, to internationalization to partnerships to HR to design to recruiting to leadership to driver onboarding to Uber Eats to self-driving...there are A LOT of moving parts in A LOT of different countries. It is incredibly difficult to scale an operation like Uber and it takes a lot of people, time, and money. There is a big difference between running a global business and a toy side project that someone pushed up to Heroku...and no..."b..b..but I can just add more servers" is not a valid scaling strategy for a business. I know my comment is a bit more harsh than necessary but it's borne out of a pent up frustration after seeing a 100 of these same comments directed at every company in existence.
  - fizwhiz 9y ago
    relevant: https://danluu.com/sounds-easy/ https://danluu.com/sounds-easy/
  - aswanson 9y ago
    Yeah, this reminds me of my brother saying to me, last year, that search isnt that complicated. How do you even respond to a statement like that?
athanas 9y ago
Think of the Uber controversy as a trial. It may be a trial by press or a trial by Twitter. But it's had real consequences, like a real trial. You're a judge in this trial. You've heard the prosecution make a very eloquent case. You've been convinced. You've delivered your verdict. And the sentence has been executed. But wait. Didn't we skip a step? Is there a missing step in this procedure? Perhaps that's a good exercise for the reader.
65827 9y ago
We worshiped the corporate hierarchy so much we protest it's destruction! Even when it was evil! Some people just like to be told what to do I guess.
draw_down 9y ago
As Gruber pointed out, not surprising- it was his company for a long time.
cocktailpeanuts 9y ago
I'm sure it's not "some" but a lot of employees, but most are afraid to speak out just because they have seen what happens to people who advocate for someone who's down. I know for a fact that a lot of Uber employees nowadays can't talk freely outside about the fact that they work at Uber, when they used to be proud to talk about it just a couple of years ago. I also know that many employees at Uber (men or women) are proud to work at the company, and again, too afraid to talk about it because the outside world will treat them like nazis. Lastly, I'm pretty sure people will turn this into sexism discussion and call me a sexist, because they know no one can win over sexism. But I also know that if you ask Uber employees, most of them will say it's no different from working at any other tech company. But again, they can't say that out loud because they will be witch-hunted. It's kind of sad that the Internet has become optimized for this type of witch hunt. A couple of years ago everyone wanted to get investment from Peter Thiel and "contrarian" beliefs were celebrated. But nowadays it's used as a tool for mockery because it's simply "hip" to talk shit about him. Same goes for Uber, not sure if you guys remember but if you think hard enough, just a few years ago Uber was celebrated as the "savior that fights for justice against the abusive taxi industry, even if it means operating in a gray zone". But nowadays media just loves to spin it as "Uber committed all kinds of illegal crimes, so the CEO has got to go" Before I get downvoted to oblivion, let me emphasize that I'm not saying Uber is good. I'm saying we really need to stop witch hunt.
- travisjungroth 9y ago
  You know what the difference is between a which hunt and the public reaction to Uber's bad behavior? Witches don't exist.
- RodericDay 9y ago
  Uber is not just like every other company. That's seriously some "boys will be boys" type thinking to excuse the messed up behavior of a certain few.
- sidlls 9y ago
  Some of us think that the similarities Uber has to other tech companies in this area is an indictment of these other companies, not an excuse for Uber. Also, this is as much a witch hunt as Uber is a paragon of feminism.
dixie_land 9y ago
what happened to the good ol' days when Americans looked up to self made millionaires and think "I'm gonna make myself a million bucks just like that guy" rather than "hey fk you for getting your lazy ass off the coach and made your life better" then proceed with batshit PC crap to bring him down.
- thatswrong0 9y ago
  I don't see how you can possibly look at the words and actions of Travis Kalanick and think that him being rich is the reason that he's hated.
benicelifeshort 9y ago
No company can hire as fast as Uber and remain good. No company ever has and no company ever will. His mistake was not being technical or creative enough to scale the company's service without scaling the headcount. The specific symptoms are not particularly interesting or novel. In fact they were entirely predictable and the company is surprisingly good for how poorly it was built. There are a number of major pitfalls every company must avoid. He failed to avoid a fatal one.
- CalChris 9y ago
  Everything else aside, and there's a lot to set aside, Uber should have focused on turning a profit with their core business model (difficult) rather than, oh look! a shiny object: automated cars. I give them no credit for growing big and unprofitable.
  - prostoalex 9y ago
    It is likely more disturbing considering that this is a shiny object in a series of shiny objects. UberChina, self-driving car, Elevate autonomous drone. From the outside it seems like attempting to cargo-cult Google except for the balance sheet.
  - ghaff 9y ago
    I don't know if the autonomous car BS at Uber is deliberate distraction or delusional thinking. It should be obvious to most people that, while it pretty clearly will happen, it's some number of decades out before there will be door to door Johnny cab service. And therefore utterly irrelevant as far as Uber in the here and now is concerned.
  - spikels 9y ago
    Take a look at the economics of driverless cars. It is not a case of "Oh look! a shiny object" but "Oh no! We are building an obsolete business". Even the big automakers now understand this will be radical change (Ford hired away part of Uber's team).
    - 9y ago
ivanbakel 9y ago
Interesting to see how all the positive evaluations of him come from his contributions to the company. Nobody defends his character or his moral decisions. Does working hard absolve you of misdeeds?
- prostoalex 9y ago
  The question open to debate is whether one can succeed in the taxi business without being a brash, assertive a-hole, whose opponents include brash, assertive taxicab medallion owners and drivers as well as politicians bought by them. Even Lyft's current expansion was somewhat facilitated by Uber coming to town and strong-arming the municipality into legalizing ride-sharing.
  - williamscales 9y ago
    I am think many people would consider it somewhat okay to be a brash assertive asshole to other brash assertive assholes. But that doesn't mean one has to be a brash assertive asshole to the female employees collectively.
davidf18 9y ago
This FB post is referred to in the article, written by a woman who is very, very supportive of TK: https://www.facebook.com/margaretann.seger/posts/10214004058522221 https://www.facebook.com/margaretann.seger/posts/10214004058... 1000 people have "liked" the posting including Zuckerberg and a number of women have commented in support of TK. EDIT: This is from the FB poster, Margaret-Ann Seger. Other women seem to confirm her perspective. If it were truly a sexist culture as was claimed then you wouldn’t be seeing these testimonials. It suggests that despite everything, something else is going on. “Thank you for creating a culture where- as a woman- it was okay to, no, encouraged to speak up. This is one of my oft less-told anecdotes, but I feel it's appropriate given the circumstances. Before Uber, I was at Facebook. I left Facebook because I was told that I was too aggressive. Pushing too hard, wanting to move too fast, challenging the status quo a bit too much. The amazing part is that coming to Uber was like a homecoming. I could be who I truly am, without being labeled an "aggressive" woman. I could push on assumptions, move quickly, do whatever work needed to be done whether it was "in my area" or not, question leadership in an open, earnest environment. It was like a breath of fresh air. I don't think people realize how unique this is. This company truly listens to every voice, from the VPs all the way down to the junior PMs like myself. Thank you. Thank you for listening and creating an environment where the best answer truly does win.”
- malandrew 9y ago
  Another post from Frederique Dame: https://www.facebook.com/frederique/posts/10155430670252905?match=ZnJlZGVyaXF1ZSBkYW1lLGZyZWRlcmlxdWUsZGFtZQ%3D%3D https://www.facebook.com/frederique/posts/10155430670252905?...
- zzalpha 9y ago
  If it were truly a sexist culture as was claimed then you wouldn’t be seeing these testimonials. Fascinating. One group of women saying the culture in Uber is corrosive? Well that's rumour and innuendo. But another group of women saying it's fine? Well, then that's just the way it must be! Confirmation bias much? Here's the thing: There was an investigation. By Eric frickin' Holder. Not exactly a legal slouch. Out of that came nearly fifty recommendations for ways to fix the culture. Are we to believe Holder was just full of it? That it was all manufactured? All because 6% of the Uber headcount think things were fine? Edit: Incidentally, those women that are supportive of Kalanick could easily be explained by survivorship bias. That is, the women that ended up in groups that didn't suck, or could handle the culture, stuck around while the rest left.
habosa 9y ago
This really isn't news. At Google (where I work) every time there is a big decision made thousands of employees voice their opinion about it on internal forums. Yet there's no NYT news story about a revolt against Sundar. Yes, obviously, many if not most Uber employees liked Travis. He built a huge company and made them a lot of money (on paper). He was an extremely effective businessman in spite of his personal shortcomings. If you have 70, 80, or 90% of the company signing a petition then let's write some articles. For now, nothing to see here.
jeremynixon 9y ago
Margaret's message to Kalanick deserves to be posted here - I'm angry, sad, flustered, confused, but mostly just heartbroken. The only appropriate thing to say right now is thank you, Travis. Thank you for inspiring not only your own employees but an entire generation of entrepreneurs. Thank you for inspiring us to think bigger, faster, and higher-impact than anyone has ever dared to think before. Thank you for creating a place where no idea was too crazy. When we told you that in order to make the product accessible for our international riders we would need to accept cash payments, you weren't thrilled but you were willing to give it a shot. When your employees told you that we needed to change some aspects of the internal culture, you were sad but you were all ears. Building the best possible product, the best possible company- it requires humility. Admitting you might be wrong and being open to change. I was always impressed by how truly humble you were. Thank you for creating a place so passionate about bringing affordable, reliable transportation to the whole world that your employees all over the globe were willing to hop on planes, get on Zoom calls at bizarre hours of the day, manually onboard thousands of drivers, stand on street corners handing out flyers to riders, and build last-minute stunt products to help celebrate the communities they were a part of. I've seen firsthand the impact this product has had worldwide and the universal fire and passion that Uber employees all over the world have to constantly improve it, to always be serving drivers and riders better, and to perpetually push closer and closer to truly making transportation as reliable as running water, for everyone, everywhere. Thank you for creating a culture where- as a woman- it was okay to, no, encouraged to speak up. This is one of my oft less-told anecdotes, but I feel it's appropriate given the circumstances. Before Uber, I was at Facebook. I left Facebook because I was told that I was too aggressive. Pushing too hard, wanting to move too fast, challenging the status quo a bit too much. The amazing part is that coming to Uber was like a homecoming. I could be who I truly am, without being labeled an "aggressive" woman. I could push on assumptions, move quickly, do whatever work needed to be done whether it was "in my area" or not, question leadership in an open, earnest environment. It was like a breath of fresh air. I don't think people realize how unique this is. This company truly listens to every voice, from the VPs all the way down to the junior PMs like myself. Thank you. Thank you for listening and creating an environment where the best answer truly does win. And thank you on behalf of your riders and drivers. You've created millions of earning opportunities for drivers all over the world. From the part-time student teacher driver to the full-time driver in India, these are real economic opportunities at an unprecedented scale. I'm always amazed talking to drivers in India or Indonesia or Mexico or Kenya- their story is not too dissimilar from the drivers I talk to on my way home from work in SF. Uber has allowed them to build a better life for their family- to send their kids to school, to work more flexible hours so that they can be there for their family. Not to mention the newfound mobility that Uber affords millions upon millions worldwide. Elderly folks & teens can now access their city, stress-free. People can go out for a drink- or three- and get home safely without endangering those around them. Uber is fundamentally reshaping people's transportation habits and how they interact with their cities. This kind of impact would have been unthinkable only a few years ago, but we've made it a reality- thanks to your vision. So thank you. We've mis-stepped at times- I'll be the first to admit that Uber is not perfect. But the positive impact you've had on this company, and the world, is truly inspirational. Goodbyes always suck. Thanks to the OG Builder.
calbear81 9y ago
The buck stops at the CEO. I get why the culture can get out of control and different people have different reactions to the environment created and no one person is responsible for the creation of culture but the CEO is the one who is responsible for course correction and making sure shit doesn't get out of hand. That's the failure. The two other specific failures that also are hard to defend: 1) Rape report from the case in India - TK should have fired the exec for the violation of privacy and disrespect to the victim. The fact that he saw the report and didn't do much about it is a failure. 2) Otto mess - not going to assume he knew or did not know but it's a failure of judgement to drive that acquisition without properly making sure he didn't expose the company to such a high degree of legal risk. At the end of the day, his reputation for risk and brashness cuts both ways. I lean towards believing he's someone who will do what it takes to win and I respect that. If you get caught though, be prepared to suffer the consequences if you cut a few corners getting there. * BTW this shit isn't unique to Uber - anytime $BBBs are on the line, people will do things they might normally not do.

50 points by tiger3 9y ago

bfrog 9y ago

I see a large layoff coming soon

dpflan 9y ago

"Some" == "The 1,000 clicks the petition received represent a small fraction of Uber’s more than 15,000 employees."

sidlls 9y ago

Mr. York should be the next to go. Who has someone with so little experience at anything, including life, influence, let alone have serious input, in a company's values? No wonder there was a culture of apparently unrestrained adolescent male aggression. An adolescent male helped shape the guidelines.

drenvuk 9y ago

I wonder if this is loyalty or fear of stock devaluation. I hope it's the former, that kind of thing is beautiful to see in employees.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
SwellJoe 9y ago
I dunno. I've seen an awful lot of loyalty to ideas that don't deserve loyalty over the past several years, and it seems to keep ruining good things. A toxic culture really isn't one that deserves loyalty, and Kalanick inarguably built a toxic culture into the fabric of Uber. He's not the only one, but he's ultimately the responsible party. If you want to kill a toxic culture that starts at the top, you simply can't leave him in charge. It isn't surprising to me that ~1000 people in an organization would want the toxic culture to continue. There's a small subset of people who thrive in a toxic culture, and they, obviously, don't want it to go away. I'm sure some of these folks just like the guy and never had any problems with him, personally, perhaps because they're a young white male. Those folks probably aren't actively defending the toxic culture of Uber; they're just naively assuming that because they didn't experience it, it doesn't exist and that Kalanick is the victim of a smear campaign.
- Steko 9y ago
  I doubt you can pigeonhole everyone who supports travis into a single category. Some might not want any change at uber but I think more of them just like Travis and see the many positive things he's done for them, some think changes can be made with him still on top, some are just virtue signalling to the remaining management who are still Travis's people or for Travis himself if/when he returns.
- marcell 9y ago
  > There's a small subset of people who thrive in a toxic culture > perhaps because they're a young white male Really? This is such a mean generalization of 1000 people who you have never even met...
  - SwellJoe 9y ago
    Yeah, I'm just awful. Have you been following the Uber story, at all, over the past several years?
gkoberger 9y ago
My personal thoughts about Travis aside, it seems to be loyalty. I've seen a lot of support of Travis (as a leader/person) from Uber employees on Facebook the past few days. It's anecdotal, but there seems to be a number of people who are deeply loyal.
callmevx 9y ago
about those fears... http://fortune.com/2017/06/23/uber-stock-ceo-travis-kalanick-t-rowe-price/ http://fortune.com/2017/06/23/uber-stock-ceo-travis-kalanick...

jph 9y ago

Uber is in a difficult position. On the one hand, Kalanick has built a massive company. On the other hand, Holder's investigation turned up serious problems with the work culture. And employees, drivers, and investors are caught between these. To understand it from the inside, the best source I've seen is Susan Fowler's post "Reflecting on one very strange year at Uber". https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-on...

CalChris 9y ago
A massive unprofitable company. Anyone can do that. Anyone.
- Axsuul 9y ago
  All you're doing is looking at the numbers
- jacquesm 9y ago
  Tbh I couldn't. For one I wouldn't be comfortable doing it and for another it takes great courage to take on a project this size. So I couldn't do it for these two reasons alone and probably many others (skills) besides.
- cakedoggie 9y ago
  Go one then.

ensiferum 9y ago

15k employees and this number obv doesn't include the drivers. Seriously?! What do they all do?

askafriend 9y ago
People says this for literally every company and it's getting fairly annoying that so many people can't see how a global operations-heavy company that does business in 200+ countries and develops an incredibly complex product can require a lot of resources....it's almost like people who ask this question have never worked on scaling a real business before. I mean theres everything from marketing, to customer support, to ground operations, to engineering, to site reliability, to infrastructure, to product, to internationalization to partnerships to HR to design to recruiting to leadership to driver onboarding to Uber Eats to self-driving...there are A LOT of moving parts in A LOT of different countries. It is incredibly difficult to scale an operation like Uber and it takes a lot of people, time, and money. There is a big difference between running a global business and a toy side project that someone pushed up to Heroku...and no..."b..b..but I can just add more servers" is not a valid scaling strategy for a business. I know my comment is a bit more harsh than necessary but it's borne out of a pent up frustration after seeing a 100 of these same comments directed at every company in existence.
- fizwhiz 9y ago
  relevant: https://danluu.com/sounds-easy/ https://danluu.com/sounds-easy/
- aswanson 9y ago
  Yeah, this reminds me of my brother saying to me, last year, that search isnt that complicated. How do you even respond to a statement like that?

athanas 9y ago

Think of the Uber controversy as a trial. It may be a trial by press or a trial by Twitter. But it's had real consequences, like a real trial. You're a judge in this trial. You've heard the prosecution make a very eloquent case. You've been convinced. You've delivered your verdict. And the sentence has been executed. But wait. Didn't we skip a step? Is there a missing step in this procedure? Perhaps that's a good exercise for the reader.

65827 9y ago

We worshiped the corporate hierarchy so much we protest it's destruction! Even when it was evil! Some people just like to be told what to do I guess.

draw_down 9y ago

As Gruber pointed out, not surprising- it was his company for a long time.

cocktailpeanuts 9y ago

I'm sure it's not "some" but a lot of employees, but most are afraid to speak out just because they have seen what happens to people who advocate for someone who's down. I know for a fact that a lot of Uber employees nowadays can't talk freely outside about the fact that they work at Uber, when they used to be proud to talk about it just a couple of years ago. I also know that many employees at Uber (men or women) are proud to work at the company, and again, too afraid to talk about it because the outside world will treat them like nazis. Lastly, I'm pretty sure people will turn this into sexism discussion and call me a sexist, because they know no one can win over sexism. But I also know that if you ask Uber employees, most of them will say it's no different from working at any other tech company. But again, they can't say that out loud because they will be witch-hunted. It's kind of sad that the Internet has become optimized for this type of witch hunt. A couple of years ago everyone wanted to get investment from Peter Thiel and "contrarian" beliefs were celebrated. But nowadays it's used as a tool for mockery because it's simply "hip" to talk shit about him. Same goes for Uber, not sure if you guys remember but if you think hard enough, just a few years ago Uber was celebrated as the "savior that fights for justice against the abusive taxi industry, even if it means operating in a gray zone". But nowadays media just loves to spin it as "Uber committed all kinds of illegal crimes, so the CEO has got to go" Before I get downvoted to oblivion, let me emphasize that I'm not saying Uber is good. I'm saying we really need to stop witch hunt.

travisjungroth 9y ago
You know what the difference is between a which hunt and the public reaction to Uber's bad behavior? Witches don't exist.
RodericDay 9y ago
Uber is not just like every other company. That's seriously some "boys will be boys" type thinking to excuse the messed up behavior of a certain few.
sidlls 9y ago
Some of us think that the similarities Uber has to other tech companies in this area is an indictment of these other companies, not an excuse for Uber. Also, this is as much a witch hunt as Uber is a paragon of feminism.

dixie_land 9y ago

what happened to the good ol' days when Americans looked up to self made millionaires and think "I'm gonna make myself a million bucks just like that guy" rather than "hey fk you for getting your lazy ass off the coach and made your life better" then proceed with batshit PC crap to bring him down.

thatswrong0 9y ago
I don't see how you can possibly look at the words and actions of Travis Kalanick and think that him being rich is the reason that he's hated.

benicelifeshort 9y ago

No company can hire as fast as Uber and remain good. No company ever has and no company ever will. His mistake was not being technical or creative enough to scale the company's service without scaling the headcount. The specific symptoms are not particularly interesting or novel. In fact they were entirely predictable and the company is surprisingly good for how poorly it was built. There are a number of major pitfalls every company must avoid. He failed to avoid a fatal one.

CalChris 9y ago
Everything else aside, and there's a lot to set aside, Uber should have focused on turning a profit with their core business model (difficult) rather than, oh look! a shiny object: automated cars. I give them no credit for growing big and unprofitable.
- prostoalex 9y ago
  It is likely more disturbing considering that this is a shiny object in a series of shiny objects. UberChina, self-driving car, Elevate autonomous drone. From the outside it seems like attempting to cargo-cult Google except for the balance sheet.
- ghaff 9y ago
  I don't know if the autonomous car BS at Uber is deliberate distraction or delusional thinking. It should be obvious to most people that, while it pretty clearly will happen, it's some number of decades out before there will be door to door Johnny cab service. And therefore utterly irrelevant as far as Uber in the here and now is concerned.
- spikels 9y ago
  Take a look at the economics of driverless cars. It is not a case of "Oh look! a shiny object" but "Oh no! We are building an obsolete business". Even the big automakers now understand this will be radical change (Ford hired away part of Uber's team).
  - 9y ago

ivanbakel 9y ago

Interesting to see how all the positive evaluations of him come from his contributions to the company. Nobody defends his character or his moral decisions. Does working hard absolve you of misdeeds?

prostoalex 9y ago
The question open to debate is whether one can succeed in the taxi business without being a brash, assertive a-hole, whose opponents include brash, assertive taxicab medallion owners and drivers as well as politicians bought by them. Even Lyft's current expansion was somewhat facilitated by Uber coming to town and strong-arming the municipality into legalizing ride-sharing.
- williamscales 9y ago
  I am think many people would consider it somewhat okay to be a brash assertive asshole to other brash assertive assholes. But that doesn't mean one has to be a brash assertive asshole to the female employees collectively.

davidf18 9y ago

This FB post is referred to in the article, written by a woman who is very, very supportive of TK: https://www.facebook.com/margaretann.seger/posts/10214004058522221 https://www.facebook.com/margaretann.seger/posts/10214004058... 1000 people have "liked" the posting including Zuckerberg and a number of women have commented in support of TK. EDIT: This is from the FB poster, Margaret-Ann Seger. Other women seem to confirm her perspective. If it were truly a sexist culture as was claimed then you wouldn’t be seeing these testimonials. It suggests that despite everything, something else is going on. “Thank you for creating a culture where- as a woman- it was okay to, no, encouraged to speak up. This is one of my oft less-told anecdotes, but I feel it's appropriate given the circumstances. Before Uber, I was at Facebook. I left Facebook because I was told that I was too aggressive. Pushing too hard, wanting to move too fast, challenging the status quo a bit too much. The amazing part is that coming to Uber was like a homecoming. I could be who I truly am, without being labeled an "aggressive" woman. I could push on assumptions, move quickly, do whatever work needed to be done whether it was "in my area" or not, question leadership in an open, earnest environment. It was like a breath of fresh air. I don't think people realize how unique this is. This company truly listens to every voice, from the VPs all the way down to the junior PMs like myself. Thank you. Thank you for listening and creating an environment where the best answer truly does win.”

malandrew 9y ago
Another post from Frederique Dame: https://www.facebook.com/frederique/posts/10155430670252905?match=ZnJlZGVyaXF1ZSBkYW1lLGZyZWRlcmlxdWUsZGFtZQ%3D%3D https://www.facebook.com/frederique/posts/10155430670252905?...
zzalpha 9y ago
If it were truly a sexist culture as was claimed then you wouldn’t be seeing these testimonials. Fascinating. One group of women saying the culture in Uber is corrosive? Well that's rumour and innuendo. But another group of women saying it's fine? Well, then that's just the way it must be! Confirmation bias much? Here's the thing: There was an investigation. By Eric frickin' Holder. Not exactly a legal slouch. Out of that came nearly fifty recommendations for ways to fix the culture. Are we to believe Holder was just full of it? That it was all manufactured? All because 6% of the Uber headcount think things were fine? Edit: Incidentally, those women that are supportive of Kalanick could easily be explained by survivorship bias. That is, the women that ended up in groups that didn't suck, or could handle the culture, stuck around while the rest left.

habosa 9y ago

This really isn't news. At Google (where I work) every time there is a big decision made thousands of employees voice their opinion about it on internal forums. Yet there's no NYT news story about a revolt against Sundar. Yes, obviously, many if not most Uber employees liked Travis. He built a huge company and made them a lot of money (on paper). He was an extremely effective businessman in spite of his personal shortcomings. If you have 70, 80, or 90% of the company signing a petition then let's write some articles. For now, nothing to see here.

jeremynixon 9y ago

Margaret's message to Kalanick deserves to be posted here - I'm angry, sad, flustered, confused, but mostly just heartbroken. The only appropriate thing to say right now is thank you, Travis. Thank you for inspiring not only your own employees but an entire generation of entrepreneurs. Thank you for inspiring us to think bigger, faster, and higher-impact than anyone has ever dared to think before. Thank you for creating a place where no idea was too crazy. When we told you that in order to make the product accessible for our international riders we would need to accept cash payments, you weren't thrilled but you were willing to give it a shot. When your employees told you that we needed to change some aspects of the internal culture, you were sad but you were all ears. Building the best possible product, the best possible company- it requires humility. Admitting you might be wrong and being open to change. I was always impressed by how truly humble you were. Thank you for creating a place so passionate about bringing affordable, reliable transportation to the whole world that your employees all over the globe were willing to hop on planes, get on Zoom calls at bizarre hours of the day, manually onboard thousands of drivers, stand on street corners handing out flyers to riders, and build last-minute stunt products to help celebrate the communities they were a part of. I've seen firsthand the impact this product has had worldwide and the universal fire and passion that Uber employees all over the world have to constantly improve it, to always be serving drivers and riders better, and to perpetually push closer and closer to truly making transportation as reliable as running water, for everyone, everywhere. Thank you for creating a culture where- as a woman- it was okay to, no, encouraged to speak up. This is one of my oft less-told anecdotes, but I feel it's appropriate given the circumstances. Before Uber, I was at Facebook. I left Facebook because I was told that I was too aggressive. Pushing too hard, wanting to move too fast, challenging the status quo a bit too much. The amazing part is that coming to Uber was like a homecoming. I could be who I truly am, without being labeled an "aggressive" woman. I could push on assumptions, move quickly, do whatever work needed to be done whether it was "in my area" or not, question leadership in an open, earnest environment. It was like a breath of fresh air. I don't think people realize how unique this is. This company truly listens to every voice, from the VPs all the way down to the junior PMs like myself. Thank you. Thank you for listening and creating an environment where the best answer truly does win. And thank you on behalf of your riders and drivers. You've created millions of earning opportunities for drivers all over the world. From the part-time student teacher driver to the full-time driver in India, these are real economic opportunities at an unprecedented scale. I'm always amazed talking to drivers in India or Indonesia or Mexico or Kenya- their story is not too dissimilar from the drivers I talk to on my way home from work in SF. Uber has allowed them to build a better life for their family- to send their kids to school, to work more flexible hours so that they can be there for their family. Not to mention the newfound mobility that Uber affords millions upon millions worldwide. Elderly folks & teens can now access their city, stress-free. People can go out for a drink- or three- and get home safely without endangering those around them. Uber is fundamentally reshaping people's transportation habits and how they interact with their cities. This kind of impact would have been unthinkable only a few years ago, but we've made it a reality- thanks to your vision. So thank you. We've mis-stepped at times- I'll be the first to admit that Uber is not perfect. But the positive impact you've had on this company, and the world, is truly inspirational. Goodbyes always suck. Thanks to the OG Builder.

calbear81 9y ago

The buck stops at the CEO. I get why the culture can get out of control and different people have different reactions to the environment created and no one person is responsible for the creation of culture but the CEO is the one who is responsible for course correction and making sure shit doesn't get out of hand. That's the failure. The two other specific failures that also are hard to defend: 1) Rape report from the case in India - TK should have fired the exec for the violation of privacy and disrespect to the victim. The fact that he saw the report and didn't do much about it is a failure. 2) Otto mess - not going to assume he knew or did not know but it's a failure of judgement to drive that acquisition without properly making sure he didn't expose the company to such a high degree of legal risk. At the end of the day, his reputation for risk and brashness cuts both ways. I lean towards believing he's someone who will do what it takes to win and I respect that. If you get caught though, be prepared to suffer the consequences if you cut a few corners getting there. * BTW this shit isn't unique to Uber - anytime $BBBs are on the line, people will do things they might normally not do.